


Throw the Plate at the Wall

by tbmd1066



Series: Carpet Burns and Carousels [3]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Era, M/M, Post-Episode: s02e03 The Nightmare Begins, Post-Magic Reveal, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24494314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tbmd1066/pseuds/tbmd1066
Summary: Arthur looked away, poking at his eggs with his fork. "I don't want to look surprised when you start working with Morgana. I don't want to worry her or have her think I'm...intimidated."Merlin's heart jumped into the back of his throat when he realized what Arthur meant. "You want me to show you magic now?"
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Carpet Burns and Carousels [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769542
Comments: 9
Kudos: 417





	Throw the Plate at the Wall

**Author's Note:**

> Must we have plot?? Is it not enough to simply discuss (or not discuss) feelings and theorize about the intricacies of magic?

Merlin awoke to the first rays of light coming in through the window and piercing him right in the eye. He was surprised he'd even managed to fall asleep in the first place.

He was going to start teaching Morgana magic that afternoon. Provided, that was, that she wasn't absolutely livid with him. She had every reason to be. Not to mention that he'd never taught anyone magic before, unless he counted himself, and even that was still a work in progress.

Merlin got up and pried up the floorboard under which he kept his spellbook. If Morgana forgave him and agreed to let him teach her, he was going to need it. He shoved the book into his satchel. He looked around for his boots for far too long before remembering he had left them in Arthur's chambers the night before. He'd have to go there before getting Arthur's breakfast. It was generally a foolhardy move to get Arthur up without having food to give him. Still, Merlin figured it would be a worse idea to stumble around the kitchen in his socks. 

After he was (mostly) dressed, he headed into the main room, where Gaius was already up and eating breakfast.

Should he tell Gaius that Arthur knew? He would have to eventually, but it was a conversation that deserved more than the few minutes he had before he had to run off.

"Morning, Gaius." It would just have to wait. Merlin tried to sit at the bench and wolf down his oatmeal like someone who wasn't smuggling a book of illegal spells in his bag.

"Slow down before you choke, please, Merlin." It seemed like he was succeeding.

"Sorry," he said, his mouth full. "Gotta get to Arthur's." Why was it so hard to eat oatmeal fast? He polished off his bowl and darted out, hopefully before Gaius noticed he wasn't wearing shoes. 

Merlin had done plenty of things that were more nerve-wracking than smuggling a magic book through the palace. All the same, he felt like everyone he passed was staring at him. 

"Good morning, Merlin." said a maid passing him. "You know you're not wearing any shoes?"

Then again, there were always other reasons people might stare at him. 

Arthur was still sleeping when Merlin arrived. The mage was glad. After their talk, he'd worried that the prince would be up all night. On second thought, as Merlin got closer, Arthur did look exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was even more of a mess than usual.

Merlin's boots were right next to the bed where he'd left them. While he put them on, he thought. He felt like he ought to wake Arthur gently, given the tone of their conversation the night before. Then again, that rarely worked, and Arthur did actually have things to do that day.

Like watching him teach Morgana magic. 

Merlin collapsed onto the edge of the bed.

He was going to show Arthur magic.

He wanted to show Arthur magic. He had wanted it since the day he'd met Arthur. Granted, he'd initially wanted to show Arthur magic by kicking his smug ass, but he had wanted to. 

So why was he so afraid?

"Mm...Merlin?" Merlin twisted around to see Arthur staring up at him, still bleary-eyed with sleep. 

"Uh, yes?"

"Whazza matter?" 

Merlin took a breath and tried to calm himself. "It's nothing. How did you sleep?"

Arthur groaned and closed his eyes.

"That good?" laughed Merlin. "It's time to get up. You have a meeting with Leon in an hour, and then, uh..."

Arthur blinked, looking very awake quite suddenly. "We're having lunch with Morgana."

The two of them stared at each other, the weight of everything from last night coming back even heavier in the daylight. 

Merlin stood, shakily. "I'll be right back with breakfast. See if you can make your hair look less like a bouquet of hedgehogs." Merlin left his satchel on the table and hurried downstairs. He passed Gwen in the stairwell, already heading up with Morgana's breakfast.

"Hey, Gwen!"

She stopped and smiled. "Good morning, Merlin. Running late again?"

He grinned nervously. "Just barely." he was usually later. "I-er, I'm glad I caught you, though; Arthur wants to know if Morgana would like to have lunch with him."

"Oh, I'll ask." Merlin hoped she couldn't hear his heart pounding in his throat. "I know she's not busy, but-" 

"Good, good. He just, ah, wants to talk to her about...something." _Shut up!!_ He thought frantically. Arthur was right, he was a rubbish liar. He didn't even _need_ to be lying right now!

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yep! Gotta run, sorry!" he managed to dash down the stairs without tripping and ducked through the kitchen to grab Arthur's breakfast in record time. 

Merlin hadn't realized just how many people tried to chat with him during his morning routine until he desperately didn't want to talk to anyone. He was just too rattled. The feeling didn't go away when he opened the door to Arthur's chambers to see said prince sitting at the table, dressed, hair combed, and reading Merlin's spellbook. 

Merlin shut the door quickly. "What are you doing?!"

"Fuck!" Arthur jumped. "Merlin! Would you learn to knock?!"

"Well, I would have if I knew you were doing crimes in here!" he slid the plate in front of Arthur and scooped up the spellbook. "I mean why were you even looking at-" he glanced at the page. "spells to slow the descent of falling objects?"

"Is that what it is?" asked Arthur. "It's not in English. You made a note in the margins."

Merlin looked at where he'd written ' _finally something practical.'_ "Ah, well. I mean, they're good spells, but it's a second-hand book from before the Purge, so there's a lot I can't really use. I mostly use it to study the language of the Old Religion and craft my own spells as needed. They sound a bit clunky that way, but they work."

"You had to learn an entirely new language to do magic?" Arthur stared at him.

Merlin shrugged. "It's not that hard," he said. "I've learned much harder languages for less. Why are you looking at me like that?"

Arthur was staring at him in wonder. "You never cease to amaze me, Merlin." 

Merlin smiled. "Your eggs are going cold." 

Arthur started eating his breakfast while Merlin tidied, humming to himself. 

"Do you ever use magic to do chores?"

Merlin paused, confused. "Not very often." Which was true. He generally didn't take the risk. It wasn't as if he thought it was a shortcut or cheating. The chores got done either way, and it was still him doing them. It depended on how much effort he wanted to expend, and whether he was willing to risk his life to get a stain out of Arthur's shirt.

"So _yes,_ then." 

"Why are you asking me this?"

Arthur looked away, poking at his eggs with his fork. "I don't want to look surprised when you start working with Morgana. I don't want to worry her or have her think I'm...intimidated."

Merlin's heart jumped into the back of his throat when he realized what Arthur meant. "You want me to show you magic now?"

Arthur nodded. "If you're alright with it."

He was. He could feel his magic pulsing against his skin, aching to be let loose, even for a moment. He walked back to the table, trying not to look as eager as he felt. His magic buzzed, ready and overcharged. He probably should have done a little magic earlier, or before going to bed, to relax it. He hadn't, though, and he was thrumming with unused energy. He picked the pear up off of Arthur's plate and tossed it high up in the air.

"Feðeradúnfiel." 

His magic darted out eagerly, shifting matter and energy in and around the pear. The magic sucked away the object's mass, letting it gently float down to land back on Arthur's plate. Its properties settled back to normal, as did Merlin's magic.

Merlin didn't take his eyes off Arthur the entire time. 

He saw how tense Arthur looked as he approached, how his gaze darted up to the pear as it was tossed upwards, and how his eyes flickered back to Merlin's when he spoke and went wide and dark. The pear hovered downwards slowly as the two of them held eye contact. 

Arthur picked the pear up off his plate.

"Ta-da," Merlin said and immediately cringed.

Arthur's voice was very soft when he eventually spoke. "Your eyes...I always thought when sorcerers' eyes did that it...um... But you, uh..." Arthur cleared his throat. "It looks good on you." the two of them both turned bright red. Arthur stood abruptly. "I have to go. Remember to invite Morgana to lunch after I've finished my meeting with Leon."

"I already told Gwen."

"Oh, good. Um..." Arthur paused at the door. "Thank you."

And he was gone. Merlin put a hand to his cheek and wasn't particularly surprised by how warm his face felt. He hadn't expected Arthur to be so flustered. Had he been scared? Merlin didn't think so. Maybe he was just shocked. But then, there'd been something in the way Arthur looked at him-something almost... Well, that was ridiculous. Merlin shook his head. There was nothing attractive about making a pear float, nevermind what Arthur said about his eyes.

He looked down at Arthur's plate. He'd wound up barely touching his breakfast.

But he'd taken the pear with him. 

Why had Merlin levitated a pear? Because Arthur had been looking at it? How stupid. He could have done something so much more _interesting_ or beautiful. He could have spun a whole new spell, something amazing, just for Arthur.

What he had said to Arthur about spellcasting suddenly came back to him. Using the Old Language to create his own spells worked for him, but he didn't know if it would work for Morgana. Plus, it could be risky. Using a spell from the book had the advantage of being a tried and true spell.; it was shown to work for a specific duration, on one particular amount of space. There were safeguards woven into the words, and it worked in a more regulated way. Merlin wasn't even sure if using spells the way he did should work at all, but it wasn't the first time he'd done the impossible.

He sat down at the table. "Áþierre sé fletreste." _'Clean the room,'_ he said. It wasn't specific, and it wasn't a formal spell, but he knew what he meant, and since his magic _was_ him, that was generally enough to work. But would it work for Morgana?

He started flipping through his spellbook. He was looking for easy spells that would suit Morgana. The wizard who originally owned the book had clearly been powerful, with a penchant for transformative magic. Gaius had added quite a few healing spells to it, from when he'd run out of space in his own old grimoire. He'd never gotten a chance to purchase a new one. 

Perhaps it was destiny that this was the only one of Gaius's magic books he'd been able to hide away during the Great Purge. Merlin wasn't very good at healing spells, and this book held a lot more variety within its pages. 

Merlin sighed. Was he even going to be a good teacher for Morgana? His magic was so abnormal that most of his spellcasting was just winging it. He wasn't great at healing magic, and learning new spells took ages. He'd gotten faster as he learned the language, but it was still harder than it should be, and he had his theories as to why.

He was still blocking off his magic. He knew that dwelling on things that couldn't be was pointless, but he couldn't help wishing he could truly unleash his magic. Keeping it contained was exhausting, and though he'd gotten used to it over the years, Merlin was still keenly aware of everything he was missing out on. He couldn't see the atoms that were so malleable to his magic anymore, or feel the soul of every living thing. He couldn't even move the way he used to; he was uncertain about where to place his feet, and even though he'd lost weight, gravity seemed stronger than it had ever been.

Merlin rubbed his eyes and looked back at the page. Moping wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Beginner spells..." he sighed. The book wasn't remotely organized. Whoever had owned the grimoire before Gaius seemed to have just copied down the spells as they had learned them. Harder spells tended to be more towards the end of the book, but easy ones could be anywhere. 

Maybe he should consider what kind of magic Morgana had already done. Her visions aside, she'd set a small fire and broken a window and a vase. The fire...

The fire had come from her lighting a candle and expanding the flame. Merlin began flipping through the pages, looking for something specific. Working with fire was dangerous, but...

_Hrædfincer._

A simple, intent-based transformative spell that was versatile and good for warming up magic. It could light or snuff out candles, clean up small messes, make temporary sensory effects, heat water, and other simple things.

"Heating water..." Perhaps this incantation had too many variables to work as the first one Morgana would learn, but boiling water was a simple goal. Now he just had to find a more straightforward spell that did that.

He spent what felt like hours trying to figure out the right spell, only to come up with nothing. If he wanted to boil water, he'd just say 'boil the water,' and his magic would do it. Trying to actually find a spell that was meant to do that was seemingly impossible. Even Gaius's writings, which were usually practical and had to do directly with the healing arts, hadn't bothered to write that down. Maybe he shouldn't use _Hrædfincer_ after all. 

Forget boiling water; Morgana had also broken things. Breaking more things intentionally wasn't the best idea, but repairing them should be easy enough. He flipped back towards the beginning of the spellbook. 

_Gestrice._

A spell for mending smaller broken objects. It was simple, direct and straightforward. The kind of spell Merlin might have crafted himself. One word, a direct order that did a simple, useful thing. It was perfect. Now all he had to do was practice it to make sure he could teach it to Morgana.

Merlin looked around Arthur's chambers for something to cast it on. Eventually, he found an empty bottle of massage oil in Arthur's bedside table drawer. He grabbed it and smashed it on the ground. 

Which was when Arthur came back, of course. 

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Er..." Merlin looked down at the shattered glass on the floor, trying to come up with an explanation. "I noticed it was empty, and er...I was taking it to refill it, but I er...I dropped it."

"Merlin, I saw you hurl it at the ground." Arthur sounded annoyed and bewildered. Which was fair, but how could Merlin explain-

Oh.

"I was going to practice a spell on it that I want to teach Morgana."

Arthur blinked in surprise, before his mouth set into a firm line. "I didn't realize lying to me had become such a habit for you."

Merlin gulped. "I'm sorry. I don't- uh, about most things, just magic." he wasn't sure if that was reassuring. "It feels good to tell you, though."

Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose. "What spell involves broken glass all over my floor, anyways?"

Merlin smiled and held his hand out towards the floor. "Gestrice." his magic flowed out and pulled the broken shards of glass back together. The bottle became whole as though it had never come apart. Without a word, his magic swept the bottle up and brought it to Merlin's hand.

Arthur looked at the bottle and turned a vivid shade of red. "Ah." he squeaked and cleared his throat. "I see how that could be handy-er, useful."

If Arthur had the sense to be embarrassed about his rudeness, Merlin wouldn't bother pointing it out. "I thought with Morgana breaking the window, and that vase, this might be a good spell for her to start with."

"Yes, good." Arthur sounded tense, his sentences coming out short and choppy. "She should be here soon, so you should go to the kitchens and get the food."

"Oh, I hadn't realized it was that late," said Merlin. "I'll be back in a bit, then." he set the bottle down on the table and left.

Arthur was acting strange. Merlin had known him too long not to notice. It had started when he'd first seen Merlin cast magic that morning, and it had only gotten worse just now. 

He sighed. It was probably too much to expect Arthur to go from believing magic would corrupt anyone who wielded it to being comfortable seeing Merlin casting spells. It would take time. That was all it was. If nothing else, it meant that Arthur cared about him. They were friends, and the prince didn't want to see him harmed. 

Merlin smiled and hummed happily as he got the food from the kitchen and returned to Arthur's chambers. Arthur may not understand yet, but he was beginning to. His heart was in the right place, as it always was, and Merlin would be there to guide him.

"Merlin!" 

Merlin froze.

"Is that lunch?" asked Morgana.

"Uh, yes," he shifted the tray onto his left arm to get the door for her.

"Thanks." she smiled at Merlin and swept into the room. It was almost funny how her demeanour changed once she was facing Arthur. The two of them were practically siblings; they certainly antagonized each other enough to be. "Well, well, Arthur, it's not often you invite me to lunch," she smirked. "Whatever could be the occasion?"

"Actually," Merlin said, setting down the tray. "I wanted to talk to you."

Morgana's expression shifted as she sat down, surprised. "Oh? About what?"

Merlin took a deep breath. "I owe you an apology."

"Whatever for?"

"For not telling you..." he took a deep breath. "That I'm a sorcerer." Morgana gasped. "I could have helped you sooner, but I was afraid. It was cowardly, and I hope you can forgive me." Merlin's apology was brief, to the point, and well-rehearsed. He hoped. 

Morgana's eyes darted to Arthur, and then back to Merlin in fear. "Arthur..." she whispered.

"I only found out last night," he explained. "I can't say I understand it, or that I'm entirely comfortable with it, but I care about you two far too much to let anything happen to you, so..." he sat up straighter. "I want to protect you both, and I want to learn."

"You're going to learn magic?!" Morgana asked, bewildered.

"No! I'm going to watch Merlin teach you magic, and then I'll learn _about_ it!"

"If you're alright with it," Merlin interjected. The young sorceress kept staring at Arthur.

"You know about my magic, and... and..." she took a gasping breath. "You aren't-" her breathing was growing faster, and Merlin realized she was panicking. He moved to her side, but not before her eyes flashed gold. The oil bottle, still empty and sitting on the table, shattered into tiny pieces. Morgana shrieked briefly before clapping a hand over her mouth. 

"Hey, hey, it's alright." Merlin placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I was actually going to break that later anyways."

Morgana laughed, nearly hysterical. 

"I'm serious, I want to teach you a spell to mend broken objects." the poor girl stared at him, white-faced and shaking with shock. "It doesn't have to be today, though, I suppose." he looked at the glass. "Gestrice." his magic pieced everything back together. "I know it's a lot to take in."

Morgana was silent for a long minute, staring at Merlin, Arthur, and the bottle. 

"You're a sorcerer. You want to teach me." she looked back to Arthur. "And you're okay with it?"

"I'm..." Arthur cleared his throat. "I'm keeping an open mind."

"But, you're not going to tell Uther?"

"No." Arthur's answer was immediate. "I don't know whether my father genuinely believes that magic is a corrupting force or...or not, but I won't risk your lives."

Morgana smiled, tearing up slightly. She turned to Merlin with a grin. "I want to learn."

Merlin nodded. Her face was still pale, but it was also determined.

"Eat your lunch first."

**Author's Note:**

> Some thoughts:  
> "It's been 2000 words in this fic that was supposed to be about Merlin teaching Morgana magic, so...is she going to show up at any point?"  
> Merlin: Arthur doesn't like my magic now, but someday he'll be okay with it! I just have to be patient and have faith!  
> Arthur: *overwhelmed with horniness*
> 
> So there'll have to be more of this since I said I was going to write Merlin teaching Morgana magic and this isn't that yet. 
> 
> Spells used:  
> "Feðeradúnfiel." (lit. feather fall) Based on Featherfall, d&d 5e  
> "Sēoþ sé wæter": boil the water  
> "Hrædfincer" nimble finger - singular imperative verb has no end. Based on Prestidigitation, d&d 5e  
> "Gestrice" to knit together or mend. Based on Mending, d&d 5e  
> I only had the one spell in the first part, and it was translated immediately, so I thought I'd include these here. 
> 
> Title is from The Amazing Devil's song "That Unwanted Animal," which slaps and will be referenced again.


End file.
